In this unsuccessful petition from June 3, 1777, John Willoughby Jr. seeks compensation for the eighty-seven enslaved people who fled his father’s plantation to join the fleet of John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, in the Great Willoughby Slave Escape of April 1776. Willoughby blames the Patriots for encouraging people to escape when the Committee of Safety ordered the evacuation of Norfolk County. The petition includes a list of those who escaped.
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